Perkins pointed to work by Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Paul Atkins and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Chair Michael Selig.
Crypto News
The US crypto industry can maintain its momentum even if the CLARITY Act fails to pass Congress, according to 250 Digital Asset Management CEO Chris Perkins. Speaking on Cointelegraph's “Chain Reaction” podcast on May 2, he said the two main financial regulators are already delivering the certainty markets have long needed.
Perkins pointed to work by Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Paul Atkins and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Chair Michael Selig. The two agencies released a joint interpretation in March 2026 on how federal securities laws apply to crypto assets. Perkins said that guidance is already providing the taxonomy and stability the industry has been waiting for.
"These guys are creating policy and precedent every single day," Perkins said on the podcast. He added that the regulators are delivering certainty without waiting for a legislative mandate. "If not, we're going to be just fine," he said of the CLARITY Act's prospects.
Security Label No Longer a Death Sentence
The shift in regulatory tone from prior years is sharp. Under former SEC Chair Gary Gensler during the Biden administration, tokens classified as securities typically faced enforcement actions and delistings from major platforms, with no viable compliance path in the US market. Perkins said that reality has fully reversed. "In the past, being a security was a death sentence; now it is awesome to be a security," he said.
Perkins drew a distinction between agency-level guidance and statutory law. He argued that legislation would be far harder for a future administration to undo than a regulatory policy document. "As hard as it is to pass a law, it is even harder to unwind a law," he said. He added that statutory clarity offers durability that agency frameworks alone cannot match.
Expectations around the CLARITY Act rose on May 2 after Senators Thom Tillis and Angela Alsobrooks released final compromise text on the stablecoin yield dispute. Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Faryar Shirzad posted on X the same day, calling for the Senate to move the bill forward immediately. Senator Bernie Moreno has said he expects the bill to pass by the end of May 2026.
Senator Cynthia Lummis described the current legislative window as "now or never" in April 2026. The March 2026 joint agency interpretation marked a concrete departure from the enforcement-heavy approach of prior years. Rather than relying on litigation to set rules, the SEC and CFTC offered direct guidance on how existing law applies to digitalassets.
The broader industry has viewed the combination of administrative momentum and potential legislation as the most constructive regulatory environment for Bitcoin (BTC) in years. Whether the CLARITY Act advances or stalls, Perkins said the framework being built at the agency level already stands on its own.
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